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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Pro-Militaristic Israel Political Action Committees Historically

With regard to the 124 political action committees [PACs] in the United States which were established since 1976 by U.S. political allies of Militaristic Israel to purchase special political influence in Congress, the Zionist movement’s Israeli government has, historically, not sought too much publicity.

Pro-Militaristic Israel PACs which specialize in funding U.S. congressional candidates “rarely mention the Middle East, Israel, or Judaism in their titles,” according to the 1990s book Stealth PACs: How Israel’s American Lobby Seeks To Control U.S. Middle East Policy by Richard Curtis. “Other PACs established by corporations, trade associations, consumer organizations, and religious or ideological groups, identify their sponsors or purposes in their titles,” according to the same book.

Among the nondescript names which the pro-Militaristic Israel PACs operate under are “National PAC,” “Washington PAC,” “Hudson Valley PAC,” “Joint Action Committee for Public Affairs PAC,” and “Desert Caucus PAC.” According to Stealth PACs, since 1984 nearly all the pro-Militaristic Israel PACs “have deliberately sought nondescriptive titles to mask their purposes from the American public.”

Among the leading recipients of pro-Militaristic Israel PAC donations between 1978 and 1988 were the following U.S. politicians: Senator Thomas Daschle of South Dakota ($286,630); Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada ($208,540); Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania ($163,423); Rep. Richard Durbin of Illinois ($146,633); and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont ($106,200).

According to Stealth PACs, “Suggestions that in coordinating contributions of pro-Israel PACs, and in some of their other activities on behalf of Israel, present and former officers of American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] like Michael Goland have violated both the letter and the spirit of the law are generally ignored by the media and met with extreme hostility…” Southern California real estate developer Michael Goland, a former member of the board of directors of the AIPAC pro-Militaristic Israel political lobbying organization “was convicted of federal law violation” in 1988 “for concealing the fact that he was the source of the funds” for the successful 1984 campaign of Militaristic Israel’s political allies to defeat Senator Charles Percy of Illinois, according to the Stealth PACs book.

Percy was regarded by Militaristic Israel’s political allies as more sympathetic to Arab aspirations than his opponent, former U.S. Senator Paul Simon of Illinois. AIPAC board member Goland had illegally spent $1.2 million of his personal funds in AIPAC’s successful 1984 campaign to defeat Percy. Although Goland was fined $5,000 in 1988 for his 1984 federal law violation, he was again indicted in 1990 “on charges that he used other individuals as fronts to conceal illegal contributions of $120,000 of his own funds” to finance the U.S. senatorial campaign in California of Michael Valleni, and he “was convicted…of exceeding the [then] limit of $1,000 on individual donations to a candidate,” according to Stealth PACs.

Downtown twice attempted in late 1991 to speak to a press representative at the Manhattan office of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] regarding its response to some of the charges made in Stealth PACs about the methods used by AIPAC to secure congressional support for Israel. But the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was not too eager to speak to the public. The first time Downtown telephoned, all the AIPAC spokespersons “were out to lunch” and Downtown was told to telephone an hour later.

When Downtown telephoned AIPAC a second time, the receptionist asked Downtown what it wanted to talk about. After Downtown told her it wanted to talk about “congressional support for Israel,” she replied, “Oh, political questions,” and put Downtown on “hold.” A minute later, Downtown was taken off “hold” and the AIPAC receptionist informed Downtown: “We don’t talk to the press.”

U.S. law requires the U.S. president to cut off U.S. economic and military aid to any country which violates the provisions of the 1968 Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty. Yet Militaristic Israel still received over $6 billion in direct U.S. government grants in the early 1990s despite its Holy Land Nuclear War preparations and its refusal to sign the 1968 Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty, historically. But it’s not too likely that the pro-Militaristic Israel PAC donation recipients in the U.S. Congress will ever be too likely to vote for a cut-off in U.S. military and economic aid to Israel—now matter how many bombs the Israeli War Machine drops on civilians in Gaza or Lebanon, in pursuit of its undemocratic political objectives and ethnically-chauvinist settler-colonialist goals..